Out of the Shadows. James Arthur Anderson
puts everything together....In no other story would Lovecraft combine so many of his favorite themes and concepts” (6). The comprehensiveness of this story, coupled with Joshi’s observation that it is “...considerably more subtle and carefully worked out and is one of [Lovecraft’s] greatest stories” (Weird Tale 223) makes “The Shadow over Innsmouth” an excellent point in which to begin “interpreting the shadows.” Therefore, I will use this story as a brief introduction to Lovecraft’s major themes and ideas; the detailed structural analyses of Part One will reveal how these themes and ideas work within the individual texts.
While some critics (most notably L. Sprague de Camp) have seen “The Shadow over Innsmouth” as “a good, rousing yarn” (354), a critical reading of the tale discloses its allegorical nature and a number of complex themes. As the narrator of “Shadow” says in a “textual code” of his own: “The insane yarn I was hearing interested me profoundly, for I fancied there was contained within it a sort of crude allegory” (DH 334). As Gatto has demonstrated, this statement is a textual reference to the story itself, although the allegory is actually “far from crude” (76).
“The Shadow over Innsmouth” enumerates several major Lovecraft themes that will reappear as we examine other stories in greater detail. As an overview to Lovecraft’s fiction, I will speak briefly about each of the themes and their significance in other works.
First and foremost, one cannot overlook the prevailing influence of the “Cthulhu Mythos” (or what has come to be known simply as “the Mythos” or the “myth cycle”) on both “The Shadow over Innsmouth” and on Lovecraft’s fiction in general. This Mythos concept postulates the existence of a pantheon of alien beings who came to earth during prehistory and still inhabit isolated pockets of the world. These aliens appear or are alluded to throughout the myth cycle.
According to Lawrence Lynn, the Cthulhu creatures can fundamentally be divided into two groups: those who come from some distant point in known space, including the Elder Things, Outer Ones, and Deep Ones; and a second group that comes from somewhere beyond the known frame of space and time, including the Great Race, Great Old Ones, and the Mi-go (15). The most complete single history of the Cthulhu beings is presented in At the Mountains of Madness (see especially pages 61-77), which details the wars between the Old Ones and the Spawn of Cthulhu, the Old Ones and the Shoggoths, and the creation of life on earth. This essential background forms the basis for the myth cycle as a whole.
The Mythos is probably the most misunderstood concept in the Lovecraft canon for several reasons. First, a host of authors ranging from extremely talented to hopelessly inept have eagerly taken the Mythos and adapted it into their own creations, thereby blurring the lines between Lovecraft’s inventions and their own. Secondly, as Richard L. Tierney has asserted, the “Cthulhu Mythos” is actually a creation of August Derleth, rather than Lovecraft. Derleth, in his attempts to make the Mythos stories fit the traditional pattern of good and evil, probably did more to set back Lovecraft studies than even Lovecraft’s harshest critics could do.
As Robert M. Price says, Lovecraft did not intend the Mythos to be complete in and of itself, but intentionally left loose ends and inconsistencies: “...he was trying to create the same kind of inconsistency one sees in any ancient legend cycle...” (16). What have been called inconsistencies in “The Shadow over Innsmouth” and in other stories are merely part of Lovecraft’s overall plan.
As Gafford has stated, “The Shadow over Innsmouth” may be considered an extension of the Mythos history presented in At the Mountains of Madness (7), and makes the connection between the Spawn of Cthulhu as ancestors of the Deep Ones, and defines Dagon as a Deep One himself.
According to Gafford, “Lovecraft used the Mythos as a literary tool” (8) and not as an end in itself, and the Deep Ones are the “least important” part of the story. Lovecraft’s myth cycle, like Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, provides a consistent and convincing setting upon which to build narrative, and allows each tale within the Mythos to enrich each other story through minor allusions that create complete images. In Lovecraft’s world, Arkham Massachusetts is as real as Jefferson Mississippi, and Miskatonic University as concrete as Sutpen’s Hundred.
The second major theme of “The Shadow over Innsmouth” concerns heredity and what Gafford calls “Hereditary Memory” (11)—the “reversion to the habits, customs, and styles of ancestors.” This idea of reverse evolution can be found in a number of Lovecraft stories: “Pickman’s Model”; “The Rats in the Walls”; The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and others. According to this idea, pockets of humanity have interbred with monsters to form new and degenerate life forms, such as the inhabitants of Innsmouth. This type of story has an otherwise normal protagonist learning that he is a descendent of this degenerate race and reverting to his primitive form. While a more traditional author would use the realization of this knowledge as the main ingredient of horror, Lovecraft takes the idea one step further. As Joshi has shown, the significance of the story lies not in the author’s learning of his ancestry, but in his accepting and welcoming it (Weird Tale 224).
The third major theme, and a corollary to the theme of heredity in the case of “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” involves the quest for truth by a protagonist and the resulting destruction that discovery of truth brings. This theme appears in every major story and, along with the myth cycle and the theme of man’s insignificance in the universe (which will be discussed next), is a distinctive Lovecraft trademark. In “The Shadow over Innsmouth” the narrator discovers that he, too, has the “Innsmouth look” and is, in fact, a product of a degenerate race. Although the nature of the search may vary from genealogy in “The Shadow over Innsmouth” and Charles Dexter Ward, to scientific curiosity in “Herbert West, Reanimator” and At the Mountains of Madness, the result is always the same: the discovery of forbidden knowledge leads to madness, destruction, and pain. Although Lovecraft scholars have speculated upon the autobiographical nature of this theme in relation to the history of insanity that tainted Lovecraft’s own ancestry, it is obvious from Lovecraft’s letters that his personal search for truth resulted in the belief of human insignificance in the universe, a philosophy that brought him great personal pain.
“The Shadow over Innsmouth” highlights this theme of human insignificance, a perspective Lovecraft gained through his extensive interest in astronomy and science. In this story, the universe is symbolized by the ocean, a cold, dark region similar to the cosmos, and harboring deep and terrible mysteries. This theme is the by-product of the myth cycle, which is specifically designed to highlight human inferiority and unimportance in the university. Or, as Lynn has said: “Lovecraft was among the earliest science fiction writers to fully appreciate the existential significance of Copernicus. The earth is not the center of the universe, hence, neither is man” (15).
To read Lovecraft is to enter into the shadows, to explore the forbidden worlds of the “dreaded Necronomicon” and to discover that humankind is little more than a microbe in a cosmic Petri dish. Lovecraft brings us into these shadows and shows us things we may not wish to see, for hidden away in his fantastic, impossible worlds there lurks a realistic, scientific view of the universe in which we live. It is a cold, unforgiving view of a cosmos guided strictly by natural laws, with no hope of a deity or of salvation. In Lovecraft’s world, even humankind is a mistake, a by-product of alien genetic engineering gone wrong. It is not the happy ending fantasy world of Tolkien’s Hobbits or the Mars men of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but rather the naturalism of a Hemingway taken to the N-th degree.
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